SiteSell Blog

Make Your Own Lifeboat Before We Hit the Iceberg

Ken's Blog

A few days back, I posted about the tailspin that the U.S. and Europe are in. That tailspin is basically irreversible, barring a miracle. And it's not a good idea to plan one's life on the basis of miracles.

That post talked about "Shuffling the Chairs for the Best View of the Iceberg." Today, let's talk about a more positive aspect of the metaphor... lifeboats.

Don't count on "the Titanic" (your government, wherever you may be) to have enough on hand.

With my last post, I wanted to take the temperature of folks to see if they "got it." Is patriotism blinding or are people starting to see the iceberg?

In general, it seems, we all seem to agree that an iceberg looms, with a varying degree of clinging to hope. I can only suggest...

Does the "M" Stage Make You Feel Uncomfortable?

Monetization

The art of business is for the marketer and the customer to gladly make a profit off each other. Your customer happily parts with time or money in return for whatever you are offering.

Selling something does not put you in the "used car salesman" slot unless you do it badly, meaning that your customer does not make a profit off of what you offer.

Many online business owners don't want to be seen as "money-grabbing." Push past that growth-limiting attitude and evolve. You must decide to make money or have a hobby site.

Shuffling the Chairs for the Best View of the Iceberg

Ken's Blog

I almost posted this to an excellent thread in our SBI! Forums about a Wall Street Journal article entitled Nearly Half of Americans Are "Financially Fragile".

It would have pulled the thread off-topic so I resisted, even though there are some excellent tips in that thread about personal financial management.

The underlying issue, in fact, is so much more important. At this stage, personal financial management almost feels like we're shuffling chairs on the Titanic so that we can be here for the best view when we hit the iceberg.

The more you read about what's going on in this world of ours today, the more you realize that we are watching the inevitable sinking of a country that I have admired since I was 14 and studied Emerson, Thoreau and Whitman (in Literature class) and American history in high school.

Europe is headed in the same direction, I'm afraid.

We, the individuals, are sacrificed as the bad choices of institutions and countries are bailed out. Lobbies run the show. We're bogged down in wars we can't afford to be in. The US dollar is being inflated like there's no tomorrow (pushing back the iceberg to the day-after-tomorrow). There are no great leaders today, only political expediency.

SBIers do take control of their personal futures, which is a good and important step. Personal financial management (from the forum thread above) is a must, too. "Self-reliance" and "the American Dream" that moved me in high school sooooooooo many years ago are still possible.

Consider, though, the biggest step of all to optimize the life that you and your loved ones live, one which several SBIers have already done...

Are You Getting in Your Own Way?

E-Business Tips

There is no single path to success, although persistence is a critical character trait for ultimate success. Why? Because few people succeed on their first attempt.

There are guaranteed patterns of failure, things that the same people do over and over again. See "Why People Fail" for more details.

One way or another, it all comes down to this...

We do it to ourselves. We get in our own way...

Could You Create Your Own E-Book? Why Not?

Digital & Hard Goods

Creating your own infoproduct or e-book to sell on the Net is do-able once you get past this simple 5-word question... "What do I write about?"

Some brainstorming sessions will help you find the best answer to that question. For example...

1) What are your 3 top talents? Create a how-to guide that will help others perform each of these activities just as effectively.

A Business Mindset and Other Lessons

Ken's Blog

SBIer Louann (from wedding-flowers-and-reception-ideas.com) sent me an e-mail about her SBI! experience...

http://forums.sitesell.com/cgi-bin/showPost.pl?post_id=971431

There are some great lessons for you to take away as you build your online business. I'll repeat them here in case you don't have time to read Louann's full post from above...

1) Keep it simple.

Although SBI! offers you everything you could ever need to build a successful online business, you do not have to do it all. Part of "keeping it simple" is to focus. Louann keeps her eye on the ball.

Create Sparks on Your Home Page

Content & Article Writing

Your website's home page is where you establish your Valuable PREselling Proposition ("VPP"), cleanly, sharply and quickly. In the reader's mind, your VPP must answer the question, "Who is this person and why should I pay attention?"

Visitors want adventures, stories, characters, spirit, credibility. If the subject matter is more serious, like business, they want authority, of course. But they want you most of all and no matter what. So...

Are Your Web Pages Doing Their Job?

Content & Article Writing

When you build Web pages for your content site, there are two audiences to please - human visitors and the Search Engine spider bots. The goal is to best meet both of their expectations and to also get your "most wanted response"...

1) For your human readers, make your copy sufficiently compelling to get the click directly to your income source, or as a second choice to a related content page.

2) For your spider readers, work your specific keyword or topic for your site's theme (and general related keywords and common synonyms) throughout your page so that the Search Engines rank it highly in their search results. And where applicable, provide clean, visible links to your related content pages on your site. This helps spiders to "click through," scan and then bring info back to their Search Engines' databases.

"On-page criteria" are the key points that the engines need in order to know what the page is about and how to rank it (in comparison to other pages on the Net about the same topic). We'll discuss 3 points on the criteria list in this article...

Take the Google Mindset Test

Ken's Blog

On May 6, Google's Webmaster Central Blog published More guidance on building high-quality sites.

Google's post provides interesting insight into its mindset. It discusses how to audit your content to ensure it's of the highest quality possible. Most of this isn't new to SBIers, who keep it real and add value to the Web.

The results speak for themselves. While tens of thousands of non-SBI! sites (thousands who reported, just at this link at Google) tumbled in Google's rankings, resulting in huge traffic losses, traffic to SBI! sites went up by 8% shortly after their "Panda/Farmer" release.

So why am I writing about Google's post? Because it's an important read for you, SBIer or not, to deepen your understanding of how Google thinks.

Let's annotate Google's post, from an SBI! standpoint...

What Makes a Good Video?

Social Media

There are specific factors which make or break the impact your video has on visitors. Try these tips...

Video Quality Factors

1) Comfort

Discomfort in front of the camera translates loud and clear. Try this fun technique to relax and act more natural in front of the camera...

Film a short video on a subject that makes you smile, even laugh. Something deliberately silly (like a special tongue twister report) is a good choice to take your mind off of the video camera. Do it speaking into the camera, until you can actually smile and feel at ease. Eventually, you will forget that you are nervous about the camera.

Enlist the help of a friend or loved one (someone you're comfortable with) to act as your audience. Seat them beside or behind the camera while you're filming.